The Physical Test: How CBD and CBG Improve Muscle and Joint Recovery for CrossFit Athletes

Authors: Ryan Cheu, Ph.D. &  Harold Han, Ph.D.

 

The Physical Toll of CrossFit and the Root of Recovery 

I am Ryan Cheu, a scientist by training with a PhD in biology, and my life is deeply rooted in the fitness community as the owner of the Ironshell CrossFit gym in Oakland. My wife and I are both professional trainers and active competitors in the CrossFit space. Thanks to my dual background in biology and pro-training, I often look at athletic performance through a slightly different lens than a standard coach.

The physical toll on the CrossFit athletes is immense. The three biggest physical challenges I see are lower back pain, shoulder pain, and knee pain. The heavy squats, explosive Olympic lifts, and high-impact gymnastics wear and tear the body down. As a biologist, I constantly remind my athletes: Pain is just a symptom.

The root cause of those pains, and the primary barrier to athletic progression, is a lack of effective recovery. When you push your body to the limit, you create microscopic damage in your muscle fibers and connective tissues, triggering a massive inflammatory response. While acute inflammation is necessary to stimulate muscle growth, excessive or lingering inflammation leads to Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), joint stiffness, and chronic tissue damage.

For a CrossFit athlete, performance improvement is directly tied to practice frequency. How often can you come back to the gym? How consistently can you train at high intensities? If your lower back is throbbing or your knees are inflamed, you need more rest days, your practice frequency drops, and your performance plateaus. To improve, we need to optimize recovery by clearing out localized and systemic inflammation faster. 

Recently, I sat down with my good friend, Dr. Harold Han. Harold is a cannabis chemist and the founder of PhytoRX. We worked closely together testing the pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of his water-compatible cannabis emulsion. We built a deep level of mutual trust and respect through that scientific collaboration. Knowing his expertise in cannabis chemistry, I wanted to discuss a massive pain point I see in my gym and the broader CrossFit community.
                                                

                        Harold & Ryan post-training at Iron Shell CrossFit Gym in Oakland

This is where my conversation with Harold turned to phytocannabinoids. I asked him to dive into the clinical literature to see exactly how Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) can help CrossFit athletes manage this wear and tear and get back to the barbell faster.

What are CBD & CBG, and how do they work

I’m Dr. Harold Han. When Ryan and I discussed the specific physical recovery bottlenecks the CrossFit athletes were facing, I realized that the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) may hold promising solutions.

When people hear "cannabis," most would automatically associate it with smoking and getting high, which is contributed to by tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Historically, this has been the primary way humans consumed the plant. For some athletes, THC can indeed offer a way to get their minds off the grid and relax mentally after high-stress competitions.

However, heavily relying on THC may pose challenges and risks for athletes. When THC is consumed in high amounts, it leads to severe intoxication and cognitive impairment. It negatively alters focus, reaction time, motor control, and decision-making—all of which may prevent CrossFit performance improvement.

Furthermore, athletes must navigate strict drug testing regulations. THC remains a prohibited substance in competition according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and many professional sports leagues. Under WADA regulations, an athlete will commit an anti-doping rule violation if the concentration of THC metabolites in their urine exceeds the threshold of 150 ng/mL. Testing positive for THC can result in severe sanctions, effectively derailing an athlete's career. 

Fortunately, as the cannabis industry and formulation science have rapidly evolved, we are no longer limited to smoking whole-flower cannabis. Advanced extraction technologies now allow us to separate and purify specific, non-psychoactive cannabinoids—most notably Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG). Because these isolated compounds lack intoxicating properties and possess strong safety profiles, WADA officially removed CBD from its prohibited list in 2018, opening the door for athletes to use it for recovery.

By utilizing CBD and CBG, athletes can harness the therapeutic power of the plant without the intoxication or impairment. Below is the biochemical mechanism of how they independently help the body lower inflammation and recover:

  • The Mechanism of CBD: CBD acts as a powerful, multi-targeted modulator of the body's Endocannabinoid System (ECS). Instead of binding directly to traditional cannabinoid receptors to cause a high, CBD inhibits the enzymes (like FAAH) that break down the body's natural, healing endocannabinoids, thereby increasing their circulating levels (Corroon et al., 2019). Furthermore, CBD binds to 5-HT1A (serotonin) receptors to effectively reduce stress and anxiety, while also targeting TRPV1 channels to directly block the transmission of pain signals to the brain. At the cellular level, CBD actively halts the inflammatory cascade by blocking the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6 and TNF-alpha (Henshaw et al., 2021).

  • The Mechanism of CBG: Known as the "mother of all cannabinoids," CBG has a unique and highly potent mechanism. It directly binds to CB2 receptors—which are heavily concentrated in the peripheral nervous system and immune cells—to aggressively downregulate systemic inflammation (Li et al., 2024). Additionally, CBG acts as a potent alpha-2 adrenoceptor agonist and has been shown to inhibit COX enzymes (Calapai et al., 2022). This is incredibly important for athletes, as it means CBG mimics the exact inflammatory-blocking pathways of traditional over-the-counter NSAIDs (like ibuprofen), but achieves this naturally without causing ulcers or gastrointestinal damage.

The Evidence of CBD & CBG in Athletic Recovery 

CBD and CBG are not "magic cures," but could be leveraged as targeted biochemical tools. Clinical and preclinical literature reveal that they can powerfully modulate the body's inflammatory response and protect musculoskeletal structures. Here is the breakdown of the most relevant literature demonstrating how CBD and CBG can directly benefit the CrossFit community:

1. Protecting the Knees and Joints (Cartilage Preservation)

  • Study: Therapeutic Effects of Non-Euphorigenic Cannabis Extracts in Osteoarthritis (Karuppagounder et al., 2023)

  • Subjects & Design: Animal study using a surgical mouse model of knee osteoarthritis.

  • Dose/Cannabinoid: 20 mg/kg/day of CBD oil or a combination of 10 mg/kg CBG + 10 mg/kg CBD oil.

  • The Results: Both CBD and CBG normalized impaired gait and improved locomotor activity. However, only CBG was proven to be chondroprotective. CBG actively reduced cartilage degeneration, prevented the loss of chondrocytes (cartilage cells), and actually increased the number of anabolic, matrix-producing cells in the joint.

  • Impact for CrossFit: Knee pain from heavy squats and box jumps is driven by cartilage wear and tear. This study shows that a formulation containing CBG doesn't just mask joint pain; it may actively protect the physical structure of the joint from degrading under stress.

2. Treating Chronic Lower Extremity Pain

  • Study: Topical cannabidiol is well tolerated in individuals with a history of elite physical performance and chronic lower extremity pain (Hall et al., 2023)

  • Subjects & Design: 20 former professional elite athletes (from American football, track and field, and basketball) suffering from chronic lower extremity pain due to acute injuries.

  • Dose/Cannabinoid: 10 mg of topical CBD applied twice daily for 6 weeks.

  • The Results: The topical CBD was highly tolerated with no severe side effects. The elite athletes experienced significant improvements in their chronic pain levels and a major reduction in pain-related disability during daily and recreational activities.

  • Impact for CrossFit: For athletes dealing with lingering ankle, knee, or lower back pain from old training injuries, targeted topical CBD provides localized relief without systemic side effects, allowing them to remain active.

3. Preserving Strength During the Peak DOMS Window

  • Study: Efficacy and safety of cannabidiol (CBD) on reducing pain and functional impairment associated with exercise-induced muscle injury (Stauffer et al., 2026)

  • Subjects & Design: 29 healthy adults who underwent an experimental exercise-induced muscle injury protocol specifically targeting the quadriceps.

  • Dose/Cannabinoid: 67 mg/day of CBD, self-administered sublingually twice daily for 15 days (10 days prior to injury, 5 days post-injury).

  • The Results: At 48 hours post-injury—the exact window when DOMS symptoms are typically the most agonizing—the CBD group reported significantly less peak pain at rest and during movement compared to the placebo group. Crucially, the CBD group demonstrated less strength impairment (loss of peak torque) and less physical disability.

  • Impact for CrossFit: Heavy thrusters and lunges can cause damage to the quadriceps. This study proves that "pre-loading" the body with daily CBD preserves actual muscle strength and reduces physical disability during peak soreness, meaning an athlete won't have to skip their next training day.

4. Deep Tissue Muscle Regeneration

  • Study: Effects of cannabidiol supplementation on skeletal muscle regeneration after intensive resistance training (Isenmann et al., 2021)

  • Subjects & Design: 16 well-trained athletes subjected to intense heavy resistance training (back squats and drop jumps).

  • Dose/Cannabinoid: 60 mg oral CBD given immediately after exercise.

  • The Results: CBD supplementation significantly reduced blood serum concentrations of creatine kinase and myoglobin at 72 hours post-exercise. These two biomarkers indicate severe muscle damage; their reduction shows that CBD exerts a deep regenerative effect on skeletal muscle over time.

  • Impact for CrossFit: This study suggests that a single 60 mg dose of water-dispersed CBD may offer recovery benefits in trained individuals after intense lower-body workouts similar to CrossFit training. In the study, participants showed better squat strength recovery and lower muscle damage markers (CK and myoglobin) at 72 hours, indicating potential support for returning to training readiness by day three. 

5. Restoring Functional Daily Activity

  • Study: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated-dose pilot study of the safety, tolerability, and preliminary effects of a cannabidiol (CBD)- and cannabigerol (CBG)-based beverage powder to support recovery from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) (Peters et al., 2023)

  • Subjects & Design: 40 exercise-trained individuals were subjected to experimentally induced DOMS.

  • Dose/Cannabinoid: A beverage powder containing 35 mg CBD and 50 mg CBG (alongside BCAAs and magnesium) taken twice daily for 3.5 days.

  • The Results: The combination of CBD and CBG led to a clinically important reduction in how much muscle soreness and stiffness interfered with daily physical activities at 48 hours post-workout.

  • Impact for CrossFit: Muscle soreness is a common and expected effect of CrossFit training, and most athletes psychologically embrace it as a beneficial sign of hard work and muscular growth. However, when this delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) becomes too severe, it does more than just delay our training progress; it actively inhibits our normal life cycles, daily habits, and overall functional well-being. There have historically been very few effective ways to treat this level of soreness. Now, this research demonstrates that a targeted combination of CBD and CBG can successfully reduce the interference of severe soreness. If these effects can be further proven across a wider range of athletes, CBD and CBG will offer a massive, game-changing benefit for the CrossFit community. 

Conclusion: Train Harder, Recover Smarter 

CrossFit is a hard business. Every workout is a profound test of our body's physical limits. But as we have seen through both lived experience in the gym and rigorous clinical science, the ultimate deciding factor in an athlete's longevity is not how naturally strong or durable you are, but how smart you are during your recovery.

There were not a lot of highly effective methods to help CrossFit athletes combat the severe wear and tear of the sport. You drank your protein shakes, took a hot shower, got a massage, and mostly just relied on resting and waiting for the soreness to fade. However, passive waiting not only delays your training progress but also leaves accumulated inflammation trapped in your muscles and joints.

Now, with the advancements in CBD and CBG, there is a safe, non-psychoactive, and every effective way to help athletes reach true recovery. By utilizing these targeted phytocannabinoids to lower your accumulated inflammation at the cellular level, you radically speed up your recovery timeline and come back to the gym feeling 100%. This is how you truly enjoy the grueling process of CrossFit: with significantly less pain, fewer skipped training days, and a body that is primed to consistently improve its performance.

If you decide to explore PhytoRX products as part of your wellness routine, you can use our community code:

Use code: phytoRX15 at checkout

 

phytoRX is a hemp-derived CBD and CBG beverage concentrate. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

 
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